Anti-politics has emerged as an important concept for analysing the effects of distrust on liberal democratic politics. However, it is unclear why democrats should trust individuals who po...

Democratic theory and practice underwent something of a renaissance in the late twentieth century. The spread of liberal democratic political systems was accompanied by two other trends that have the potential to transform the shape of politics: the rise of environmental movements and increased public use of the Internet. These changes have generated two theoretical variations on the theme: eco...

Formulations of utopian and dystopian societies have always engaged with the politics of state power and government, since the better worlds envisaged in utopian thinking commonly rely on the interplay of individual, communitarian and political interests and concerns. Tom Moylan remarks of science fiction during the 1980s that initially it ‘changes the central power structure from the state to ...

Sex work and the operation of brothels in Perth (WA) remains an 'illegal' activity. Despite this, brothels manage to continue to operate in the Perth metropolitan area, with most 'formal' brothels located within the inner city-suburban ring. In recent years, there has been a rise in the presence of 'discrete' brothels, i.e. so-called therapeutic massage parlours that are alleged to offer sexual...

Political scientists traditionally have analyzed the effect of politics on subjective well-being (SWB) at the collective level, finding that more liberal countries report greater SWB. Conversely, psychologists have focused primarily on SWB at the individual level and shown that being more conservative corresponds in greater SWB. We integrate the theoretical foundations of these 2 literatures (e...

This paper introduces Richard Rorty’s notion of the liberal ironist and his vision of a liberal utopia and explores the implications of these for philosophical questions concerning morality, as well as morality in general. Rorty’s assertions of the contingency of language, society and self are explored. Under the contingency of language, the figure of the ironist is defined, and Rorty’s concept...

This study tests whether liberals and conservatives within the same society think as if they were from different cultures. I tested this by measuring the cultural thought style of social liberals and conservatives in Hong Kong (Study 1). Liberals tended to think more analytically (more "WEIRD"), and conservatives tended to think more holistically (more common in East Asia). In Study 2, I traine...